Facilitating spatially-explicit assessments of ecosystem service delivery to support land use planning

Since the early 2000s, there have been substantial efforts to transform the concept of ecosystem services into practice. Spatial assessment tools are being developed to evaluate the impact of spatial planning on a wide range of ecosystem services. However, the actual implementation in decision-making remains limited. To improve implementation, tools that are tailored to local conditions can provide accurate, meaningful information. Instead of a generic and widely-applicable tool, we developed a regional, spatially-explicit tool (ECOPLAN-SE) to analyse the impact of changes in land use on the delivery of 18 ecosystem services in Flanders (Belgium). The tool incorporates ecosystem services relevant to policy-makers and managers and makes use of detailed local data and knowledge. By providing an easy-to-use tool, including the required spatial geodatasets, time investment and the learning curve remain limited for the user. With this tool, constraints to implement ecosystem service assessments in local decision-making are drastically reduced. We believe that region-specific decision support systems, like ECOPLAN-SE, are indispensable intermediates between the conceptual ecosystem service frameworks and the practical implementation in planning processes.

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A Review of Changes in Mountain Land Use and Ecosystem Services: From Theory to Practice

Land ◽

10.3390/land9090336 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (9) ◽

pp. 336

Author(s):

Ileana Pătru-Stupariu ◽

Constantina Alina Hossu ◽

Simona Raluca Grădinaru ◽

Andreea Nita ◽

Mihai-Sorin Stupariu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Cover ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Quantitative Methods ◽

Global Changes ◽

Land Use Land Cover ◽

Theory To Practice ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Impact

Global changes impact the human-environment relationship, and, in particular, they affect the provision of ecosystem services. Mountain ecosystems provide a wide range of such services, but they are highly sensitive and vulnerable to change due to various human pressures and natural processes. We conducted a literature survey that focused on two main issues. The first was the identification of quantitative methods aimed at assessing the impact of land use changes in mountain regions and the related ecosystem services. The second was the analysis of the extent to which the outcomes of these assessments are useful and transferable to stakeholders. We selected papers through a keyword-driven search of the ISI Web of Knowledge and other international databases. The keywords used for the search were mountain land use change and ecosystem service. Quantitative approaches to ecosystem service assessment rely on suitable indicators, therefore land use/land cover can be used as an appropriate proxy. Landscape metrics are a powerful analytical tool; their use can increase the accuracy of assessments and facilitate the mitigation of specific phenomena, such as fragmentation or the reduction of core habitat areas. Mapping is essential: it is the basis for spatial analyzes and eases the interactions between stakeholders. Land use/land cover change is a temporal process, so both past and future approaches are meaningful. It is necessary to enhance information transfer from theory to practice. Increasing stakeholder awareness can lead to suitable management solutions, and, reciprocally, stakeholder feedback can help improve current assessment methodologies and contribute to developing new tools that are suitable for specific problems.

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Land Use Change and Urban Ecosystem Services: A Case Study of Urban Wetlands in a Rapidly Sprawling City in the Highlands of Chiapas, Mexico

Journal of Management and Sustainability ◽

10.5539/jms.v9n1p67 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 67

Author(s):

Vera Camacho-Valdez ◽

Eva M. Tello-Alcaide ◽

Allen Wootton ◽

Emmanuel Valencia-Barrera

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Cover ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Google Earth ◽

Land Use Land Cover ◽

Urban Wetlands ◽

Rapid Urbanization ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Impact

Urban wetlands provide a wide range of ecosystem services that are important for human-well-being. Despite their social and environmental importance, the degradation of urban wetlands continues mainly due to land use changes induced by rapid urbanization. Estimating the impact of these changes on ecosystem services is crucial to support the decision-making process of city planners at different levels. In this study, the spatial extents of the urban wetlands of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico were determined for the years 2001 and 2018 in order to relate the spatial changes between these years with the provision and economic value of ecosystem services. Google Earth and SPOT imagery were used to evaluate land use/land cover changes while international coefficients were used to assess the value of the ecosystem services by category. Findings reveal a 7.3% decrease in the urban wetland area and a 12.5% increase of urban areas during the study period. The ecosystem service valuation shows that the total value flow decreased around $5 million (2007 USD) during the 17-year period, mainly due to decreases in the potential for regulating and cultural services. The use of freely available land use/land cover data together with global ecosystem service estimates reduce the cost of ground data collection and provides quick and reliable information that could help decision makers with land use planning in the context of data-scarce regions.

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Variations of Ecosystem Service Value in Response to Land-Use Change in the Kashgar Region, Northwest China

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10010200 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 200 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Aynur Mamat ◽

Ümüt Halik ◽

Aihemaitijiang Rouzi

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Northwest China ◽

Natural Ecosystem ◽

Ecosystem Service Value ◽

Service Value ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Impact

Increasing anthropogenic activities have significantly altered ecosystems in arid oasis regions. Estimating the impact on a wide range of ecosystem services is important for decision making and the sustainable development of these regions. This study analyzed time-series Landsat data to determine the influences of oasis land-use changes on the ecosystem services in the Kashgar region in Northwest China. The following results were found. The total value of the ecosystem services in the Kashgar region were approximately $10,845.3, $11,218.6, $10,291.7, and $10,127.3 million in 1986, 1996, 2005, and 2015, respectively. The water supply, waste treatment, biodiversity protection, and recreation and cultural services were the four ecosystem services with the highest service value, contributing 77.05% of the total ecosystem services. The combined contribution rate of food production and raw material value was only about 4.02%, relatively small. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the estimated total ecosystem service value (ESV) for this study area was relatively inelastic with respect to the value coefficients. The findings of this study will be crucial for maintaining the stability and sustainable development of the oasis region, where socio-economic development and the integrity of the natural ecosystem complement each other. Furthermore, the results provide a scientific basis for decision makers in land use management, and provide a reference for researchers in the Northwest China.

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Impact of Land Use and Land Cover Changes on Urban Ecosystem Service Value in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Land ◽

10.3390/land10080793 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 793

Author(s):

Md. Mostafizur Rahman ◽

György Szabó

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Cover ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Well Being ◽

Urban Ecosystem ◽

Sustainable Urban Development ◽

Annual Growth Rate ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Impact

Urban ecosystem services provide a wide range of services to sustain life, social relation, health, etc., and address most of the challenges, including climate change and environmental pollution. While it is recognized that the urban ecosystem substantially contributes to human well-being in cities, there is less attention to consider the value of urban ecosystem service in urban planning and policymaking. This study analyzed the land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics of city of Dhaka over the past three decades (1990–2020) to evaluate the impact of LULC on ecosystem services value (ESV). The estimation of ESV in relation to LULC has been done using the globally used benefits transfer method (BTM). Findings of the study show that built-up area has increased by 188.35% from 1990 to 2020, with an average annual growth rate is about 6.28%. The analysis of ESV shows that it has decreased by 59.55% (85 million USD) from 142.72 million USD in 1990 to 57.72 million USD in 2020 due to the development of the built-up area through conversion of agricultural land, waterbodies, and forest and vegetation land. This study also identified that waterbodies are the greatest contributor to ESV. The result on the elasticity of ESV in relation to LULC implies that about 1% transition in LULC would result in about 0.33% change in total ESV during the study period. We believe that the findings of this study would serve as a reference for the policy maker and urban planner to devise appropriate land use decision to ensure sustainable urban development of Dhaka.

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Facilitating informed land-use decisions through the modelling of ecosystem service trade-offs

10.26686/wgtn.17060189.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Nicola Scott

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Diffusion Theory ◽

New Technology ◽

Land Utilization ◽

Management Interventions ◽

Land Use Decisions ◽

Trade Offs ◽

The Impact

Increasing global populations are placing increasing pressure on our natural systems, reducing their capacity to produce the ecosystem services that we rely upon for human wellbeing (World Bank, 2004). Clarifying the implications of land-use decisions across the range of ecosystem services is fundamental to understanding the trade-offs inherent in land-use options. LUCI (the Land Utilization and Capability Indicator) is an emergent Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based framework developed to enable the mapping of several ecosystem services in a spatially explicit manner. This process enables a clearer understanding of the inter-dependencies between ecosystems and potential implications and trade-offs of management interventions across a range of services. There is however, limited understanding of the impact, utility and credibility of such tools for land-use decision-makers, or of how they perceive the information conveyed. This Thesis considered the impact that presenting information on land-use trade-offs through LUCI had on land-owners at the farm scale. This research supports previous findings that information alone does not drive behaviour (or decision-making) (Kollmuss, 2002, Fisk, 2011; Kennedy, 2010; Mackenzie-Mohr, 2000; Stern, 2000). Similarly, perceived credibility was not the main driver of decision-making nor is it necessarily rationally based. However without it, voluntary adoption of a new technology or tool is unlikely. Therefore, in seeking to diffuse tools, such as LUCI within a community, process design should take into account the social structures and the characteristics of targeted individuals within that community. The influence of temporal and context specific factors on decision-making provides both barriers and opportunities for technology diffusion. The research findings propose that when integrating new tools and technologies within communities, consideration is given to using a suite of tools, mechanisms and theories in concert such as Community-Based Social Marketing (Mackenzie-Mohr, 2011) and Diffusion Theory (Rogers, 2003) to facilitate improved diffusion and uptake by communities.

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The Influence of Land Use Change on Ecosystem Service Value in Shangzhou District

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph16081321 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (8) ◽

pp. 1321 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Keyue Yuan ◽

Fei Li ◽

Haijuan Yang ◽

Yiming Wang

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Ecosystem Service Value ◽

Land Use Patterns ◽

Service Value ◽

Ecological Service ◽

And Function ◽

The Impact

Land use change has an impact on the ecosystem service value because it changes the structure and function of ecosystems. This paper analyzed the changes in land use during the period from 2000 to 2015 in Shangzhou district, and used the equivalent value of ecological services per unit area of land ecosystem combining the natural and economic conditions of Shangzhou district. Based on this method, the ecological service value of Shangzhou district was estimated, and the impact of land use change on the ecological service value was analyzed. The results showed that: (1) the main types of land use in Shangzhou district were grassland, woodland and farmland, among which the contribution rate of woodland to the value of local ecosystem services was the highest; (2) the overall trend in the ecosystem service value in Shangzhou district increased between 2000 and 2015, from 10.74 × 108 yuan in 2000 to 20.32 × 108 yuan in 2015, which is the result of the combined effects of regional economic development and changes in the natural environment and land use patterns; and (3) the main reason for the value increase of ecosystem services in Shangzhou district between 2000 and 2015 was that the grain-for-green policy transformed a considerable amount of farmland into woodland, while the main reasons for a decline in value was the expansion of built-up land that occupied other types of land.

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Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Ecosystem Service Value Determined by Land-Use Changes in the Urbanization of Anhui Province, China

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph16245104 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (24) ◽

pp. 5104 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sai Hu ◽

Longqian Chen ◽

Long Li ◽

Bingyi Wang ◽

Lina Yuan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Water Area ◽

Anhui Province ◽

Ecosystem Service Value ◽

Service Value ◽

Study Results ◽

The Impact

Urbanization-induced land-use change will lead to variations in the demand and supply of ecosystem services, thus significantly affecting regional ecosystem services. The continuous degradation of ecosystem functions has become a serious problem for humanity to solve. Therefore, quantitative analysis of the corresponding impact of land-use change on ecosystem service value (ESV) is important to socio-economic development and ecological protection. The Anhui province in China has experienced rapid urbanization in recent years, and ecological environmental remediation and protection have become important goals for regional development. In this paper, the province of Anhui has been selected as a case of study, we analyzed the land-use change using Landsat images from 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. We then adjusted the equivalent factor of ESV per unit area and estimated the ESV of Anhui province from 2000 to 2015 to analyze the impact of land-use change on ESV. Our results show that (1) paddy field is the main land-use type in Anhui province, the built-up land area has continuously increased, and the water area has continuously decreased; (2) the total ESV of Anhui province decreased from 30,015.58 × 107 CNY in 2000 to 29,683.74 × 107 CNY in 2015 (the rate of change was −1.11%), and regulating services make the greatest contribution to ESV; and (3) land-use change has led to severe ESV variations, especially for the expansion of water area and built-up land. Our study results provide useful insights for the development of land-use management and environmental protection policies in Anhui province.

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Assessing the impact of land-use change for solar park development in the UK: implications for biodiversity and ecosystem services

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-1271 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Fabio Carvalho ◽

Alona Armstrong ◽

Mark Ashby ◽

Belinda Howell ◽

Hannah Montag ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Land Use Change ◽

Indicator Species ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Arable Land ◽

Food Plants ◽

Ipcc Report ◽

The Impact

According to the latest IPCC report, 70 to 85% of electricity generation worldwide will need to come from renewable sources of energy by 2050 if countries are to meet internationally agreed greenhouse gas emissions targets. In the rush to decarbonise energy supplies to meet such targets, solar parks (SPs) have proliferated around the world, with uncertain implications for the biodiversity and ecosystem service (ES) provision of hosting ecosystems. SPs necessitate significant land-use change that could disproportionately affect the local environment compared to other low-carbon sources.In Britain, SPs are commonly built on intensive arable land and managed as grasslands. This offers both risks and opportunities for ecosystem health, yet evidence for assessing ecosystem consequences is scarce. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand how net environmental gains can be integrated into land-use change for solar energy development to address the current biodiversity and climate crises.We used vegetation data from over 70 SPs and 50 countryside survey plots (1 km2) in England and Wales to assess the effects of land-use change for SPs on plant diversity and ES provision. We assessed ten habitat indicator variables (e.g., species richness, larval food plants, forage grasses, bird food plants) associated to functionally important plant species that have the potential to enhance ecosystem service delivery.SPs showed higher diversity of habitat indicator species than arable land and improved grasslands, with vegetation between solar arrays showing higher numbers of species important for ES provision (e.g., N-fixing species important for nutrient cycling) than vegetation under solar panels. Overall, the diversity of habitat indicator species seemed highly dependent on former land-use, showing SPs have the potential to enhance ecosystem services provision if built on degraded agricultural land.Developing this understanding will enable optimisation of SP design and management to ensure delivery of ecosystem co-benefits from this growing land-use.

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An ecosystem services perspective of Lake Wairarapa: Insights from the past, present, and toward the future

10.26686/wgtn.17142113 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Sky Halford

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Service Delivery ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Collaborative Management ◽

Coastal Lake ◽

E Coli ◽

The Past ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Future ◽

The Impact

Ecosystem services encompass the wide range of intrinsic and extrinsic benefits that humans derive from ecosystems and how such services contribute to community wellbeing. The delivery of effective and efficient provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services at Lake Wairarapa (a shallow, super-trophic, coastal lake in the lower North Island) has been heavily impacted through current land use. Using a pragmatic epistemology and mixed methods approach, this research sought to understand the past, present, and future delivery of ecosystem services at Lake Wairarapa through three distinct, yet complementary, studies. Firstly, a palaeo-environmental reconstruction using five proxies was completed to build an understanding of past environmental conditions at Lake Wairarapa. Prior to human arrival, the lake was stable and resilient in response to environmental perturbations. However, alteration of the landscape following human arrival has reduced ecosystem service effectiveness, prompting a transition into an entirely new environmental state at Lake Wairarapa. This chapter highlighted the abrupt removal of mānuka and centennial shift from a forest catchment into one dominated by agriculture so a field trial was conducted to assess the ability of mānuka to reduce nitrogen leaching and E. coli contamination. Mānuka can significantly reduce the conversion of ammonium to nitrate compared to pasture, thus regulating nitrate leaching; however, the impact on E. coli counts was less conclusive. Finally, cultural services present at Lake Wairarapa and future community aspirations were assessed through seven semi-structured interviews of Wairarapa community members. Place attachment was recognised as the underlying factor that facilitated strong cultural service delivery. Social and environmental restoration was identified as the key vision for the future, underpinned by collaboration within resource management. From this research, four recommendations were made to enhance ecosystem service delivery at Lake Wairarapa: establishment of ecologically appropriate restoration plans, facilitated collaborative management, further investigation of environmental and economic properties of mānuka, and development of community engagement programmes. This multi-disciplinary and holistic approach outlines a pathway towards a positive and inclusive future for Lake Wairarapa and its communities.

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Impact of county-scale land use change on the value of ecosystem services: A case study in Nanping, Fujian, China

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202124801027 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 248 ◽

pp. 01027

Author(s):

LiLi Zhao

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Ecosystem Services ◽

Ecosystem Service ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Satellite Image ◽

Image Interpretation ◽

Land Use Classification ◽

Land Use Types ◽

New Type ◽

The Impact

With the changing behavior of land use by explosive population growth, the ecological environment is constantly disturbed and destroyed by humans, and the value of ecosystem services is obviously degraded. After the introduction of the national new-type urbanization plan, counties have become the key areas to promote new-type urbanization, and county land use is exceptionally active. Therefore, it is especially urgent to grasp the impact of county land use changes on ecosystem service values. Based on remote sensing satellite image interpretation to obtain county land use classification data, the changes of ecosystem service values in County between 1995 and 2015 were thoroughly explored. The research results show that the total value of ecosystem services has increased in most regions during the 20 years, among which, the service value of Shunchang County has increased most significantly. In terms of the service values of different land use types in each region, woodland is the main contributor to ecological services in different regions. From different time periods, Jian’ou City had the highest value of woodland ecosystem services in 1995 and 2015. In contrast, Songxi County had a lower value of services for each ecosystem type during 20 years.

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